Oct 12, 2012

CEREBRART - Brain Waves

Let's follow the girl from my previous post on her journey across an integrated brain cycle from those dehydrating desert to the calm hydrating ocean... The journey from yellow desert to the blue-green ocean (from motivation to goal) always is surprising for the brain! Like drops of water in the ocean combine to form ocean waves, the electrical signals of brain cells form brain waves that originate mainly from the cerebral cortex, but also reflect activities in other parts of the brain. The calming sounds of ocean waves seems to have beneficial effects on the cerebral cortex functions... Keep calm and stay happy!

Oct 11, 2012

CEREBRART - MOTIVATION TO MOVE

The Metaphorical Desert typically tends to be understood as a place that has no desirable conditions and clearly motivates susceptible to dehydration human brains to escape desert heat. In the light of this understanding, the meaning of the above CEREBRART artwork becomes absolutely clear.

Oct 10, 2012

CEREBRART - REFLECTION III

Who fell in love with his own reflection? A handsome Narcissus came to a still pool, caught sight of his own reflection and was unable to leave off from reflecting. Gazing endlessly at the reflection, he was transformed somehow into a narcissus flower having a ring of six floral leaves called the perianth which may be variously colored. Some Narcissus species are grown commercially to produce a drug used to combat Alzheimer's disease (galantamine). This CEREBRART artwork reminds: "The Reflection Stage is just one petal of an integrated cycle. So don't forget to finish your Reflection Stage just in time!"

Oct 9, 2012

CEREBRART - the Black Hole of Parkinson's Disease

This CEREBRART artwork is created for those who have fallen into this black hole - Parkinson's disease which belongs to a group of conditions called movement disorders. Parkinson's disease occurs when cerebral cells in an area of the brain known as the substantia nigra or black substance die ("melting") which results in abnormal signaling patterns within the brain that cause impaired movement. People with Parkinson's disease often develop a so-called parkinsonian gait that includes a tendency to lean forward and problems with initiating movement. Or they may stop suddenly as they walk. People with Parkinson's disease can benefit from being proactive and finding out as much as possible about mechanisms of Parkinson's disease in order to alleviate fear of an unknown spiral around a black hole. I believe strongly that active research concerning mechanisms of Parkinson's disease will lead to new effective therapies in persons with Parkinson's disease. E.g. Ronald Postuma of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and colleagues have found recently that persons with Parkinson's disease received caffeine showed a significant improvement in tests for motor problems.
http://www.neurology.org/content/79/7/651

Oct 8, 2012

CEREBRART - BIRTH INTENTIONS II

The functional role (motivation, intention, volition etc.) played by any component (e.g. cortical area, neurotransmitter, neuronal population etc.) of the human brain is largely defined by its synaptic connections. Our intentions snaked with our early predecessors synapsida through the more primitive red-to-blue information-to-immediate-action world of ancient reptilians. For decades, acetylcholine was thought of a memory-related neurotransmitter, but now acetylcholine thought to play an important role in executive functions. This CEREBRART artwork shows numerous partly stylised neural cholinergic fibers labelled by choline acetyltransferase (green) tending to establish synaptic connections with one activated pyramidal neural cell with a big nucleus (blue) and nucleolus (red) in the cortex cerebri.

CEREBRART - Big Brain Again

When it comes to human brain volume, bigger doesn't always mean better. Human brains expanded roughly by half between H. erectus and H. sapiens sapiens. The brain scientists aren't sure about the implications of this evolutionary trend. There are some disadvantages of increasing brain size. Big brains are energetically extremely expensive. And as humans continue to evolve, some scientists say our brains are actually getting smaller and admit that the shrinking human brain could eventually signal an evolutionary dumbing-down. This CEREBRART artwork evolves the topic started in my previous posts.

Oct 4, 2012

CEREBRART - REFLECTION II.jpg

This CEREBRART work interprets allegorically the Reflection phase "One More Time" - as the core concept of Reflection is about repeating the game a few times!

P.S. The zebrafish, Danio rerio, embryonic brain development (vide infra) has nothing to do with any esoteric interpretation. But I am very grateful for any interesting comments and even esoteric interpretations of my humble scientific-artistic CEREBRART artworks!